Barbie: Mermaid Power

The 40th entry in the Barbie film series, it debuted in Australia on 9Go! on 17 August 2022 before its release in the United States on Netflix a fortnight later alongside an accompanying soundtrack album. The film also had theatrical releases in the British Isles and Europe throughout October and November.

With only 6 of them present, Isla (returning from Barbie: Dolphin Magic) gasped and murmured to herself as she quietly swam out to find the remaining 2, which would turn out to be the “Malibu” Barbie and “Brooklyn” Barbie. Using the pearl necklace Isla gave to her during Dolphin Magic, the Barbie-girls and “Malibu” Barbie’s sisters; Skipper, Stacie and Chelsea, transform into mermaids, with Skipper and Stacie getting their first experience of mermaid life and Chelsea, her second after own series-turned-franchise, Barbie: Dreamtopia. “Brooklyn” Barbie begins to learn that the myth surrounding mermaids is true.

At a science academy, Marlo (also returning from Dolphin Magic) tried but failed miserably to convince its attendants to buy into her proof of worth that the myth surrounding mermaids is true with some verbally doubting her credentials and their leader, Dr. Amy Tang, going on to verbally revoke her institution’s funding to Marlo to further her “frivolous fairy-tale witch-hunt” research as she put it. Marlo was hyper-focused on it whether she would receive funding on it or not and had listed her right-hand assistant, Oslo, to achieve this.

Upon meeting Isla, she explained why she called them and she replied that they were going to get powers and meet the leader of Pacifica named Coralia, but they would later face 3 initially antagonistic pretenders for the title-earner of “Power Keeper”; Talluyah, Sareena and Finn, the latter whose sister, Aquaryah, would have swathes of adventures with Chelsea at certain periods of the film. With Marlo having 2 purple torch-oriented fish-like carnivore creatures, she would have hold of Chelsea and Aquaryah via a fishing net.

The girls would later escape through Chelsea understanding the real motive of the creatures. “Malibu” Barbie would later reunite with Marlo, but a submarine crash and an unexpected trouble for Barbie would force her to seek help from Marlo, which she would grant. Barbie would finally have her water powers at last after seeing others and her own sisters have their own powers prior. The rest of the mermaids used their obtained powers to clear off an on-coming raging mountain island of trash and filth threatening to harm not only Pacifica but the entirety of aquatic life.

With Aquaryah and Chelsea reuniting with the Pacifica folk, “Malibu” Barbie declared the former as the “Power Keeper”, citing her bravery, kindness and care as what she felt had the qualities and capacities for that title. She ordered both herself and the power tenders to aim their powers at Aquaryah, who channeled her initially weak powers to nullify and vanquish the trash island into white sprinkles. They later celebrate the preservation of aquatic life and pose for a final film shot.